Championship not decided in Australia says Vettel

2016 is supposed to be the year that everyone within Formula One has been waiting for.

After two years of domination from Mercedes, leading to Lewis Hamilton becoming a three-time Formula One World Champion, 2016 is suppose to provide the Brit with a sterner challenge.

Whilst team-mate Nico Rosberg has put up a gallant battle, a battle from Ferrari and two former F1 World Champions is a battle of greater substance.

Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are hopeful that 2016 will be the year that Ferrari close the gap to Mercedes and overtake them, for the first time during the V6 Turbo-Hybrid era of Formula One.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne believes that to do this Ferrari must hit the ground running and winning as soon as the latest Ferrari is unleashed.

However Vettel, a four-time Formula One World Champion during his days at Red Bull Racing has played down the importance of being on top from the very start with a long 21 race season ahead.

‘It’s natural that we all want to win – the team is quite big, there’s a lot of people and if you ask everyone, I think [they all agree] our target is to win,’ Vettel told Motorsport.com.

‘But we know it’s very ambitious, we know that the gap has been quite big last year. I think we did a good job over the season to come closer.

‘This year we have some changes and we will have to see – obviously the testing is crucial to start on the right foot and then we go from there.

‘But Australia is one race from 21. If you win there, it’s great, if not – you try to finish as close as possible to the top step and collect as many points. And after that it’s a long year.’